The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1887-05-15
The ilji OF r3LEDO.O
WHICH HOLDS $4,000 GALLONS
OF CATAWBA,
The Materials Of Which Weigh Is5
Tons OF S240 Pounds-A Marvel
OF Workmanship.

Cleveland (0.) correspondence of
the New York Times: Who has not
heard Of the Heidelburg tun2 Pos
terity may never know the extent of
the vast army OF Germans and of con-
tinental people generally who, in
quaffing their modest gallons after
the abstemious fashion of some for
ign nations, have slowly but none
the less surely lost their g9p upon
the reasoning faculties and died in
misery on account of their inability
to accurately determine the number
of gulps contained in the Heidelburg
tun. SomeoDe-possibly a Knight
OF Labor who has not been resident
long enough to possess the elective
franchise, and whose taste runs to
whisky may inquire why the ca
pacity of the Heidelburg tun in gulps
should be so difficult of solution.
Such person must Of course be un-
aware that the said tun had ca
pacity Of $4,000 gallons, more or less.
Had it contained exactly 10000 gal
Ions the joy of the exultant German
would have been boundless. 1t was
the more or less that staggered
him, and sent so many to grass in a
premature way. No such fate awaits
the man who looks upon and asks
questions about the Toledo tun. The
latter was not built in the sixteenth
century, like its predecessor, and its
constructors took good care to find
out exactly how much liquid it
would hold before a curious public
was turDed loose upon. Everybody
in Toledo has seen the Toledo tun.
No visitor is allowed to escape with
out looking at it. And it is situated
at such distance from the various
railroad stations that no visitor
whose time isiuot ample-to say moth
ing about his capacity-ever torgets
the visit or his more or less desper-
ate exertions to catch his train.
Work was begun on the tun in 1888,
but the solid American oak of which
it is built was drying in a kiln for
six years prior to that. Its solid
oaken slaves are twenty-one feet long
and six inches square. In the rough
six of them formed load for a two
horse team. With the utmost nicely
they we're put in place, until
as whole they measured
over sixty feet in circumfer-
ence. Through the center of the
tun, where it curves outward in a
huge swell, it measures Fl feet; the
diameter at the ends is Is feet. 1t
contains $4,000 gallons of dry wine.
To withstand the enor nous pressure
OF this bulk three iron rods are car
ried from end to end, where they are
riveted in oaken beams of great size
aud strength. The hoops are of iron.
There are IA of them, and they weigh |
three tons. Each hoop is six inches
broad and about third of an inch
in thickness. They are well groomed
hoops, and shine as il in constant
contact with an emery wheel. But
everything about the great tun be-
tokens the great care that is taken of
it. Its oaken surface is polished to
such degree that the sun loves to
creep in through the prison like
windows and dance upon its shining
bulk. The huge brass spigot glitters
like gold fresh from the coiner's |
hand. The oaken platform that faces
its tremendous head, and the oaken |
stairway that winds around the base
and enables the visitor to look down |
upon the mammoth, glisten
under frequent coats of varnish. A |
blow upon its iron ribbed body makes
no impression unless the ear be
placed close to the wood, then the
sound is like the last gasp OF thun-
der clap. Days and days were occu.
pied in filling it with Catawba made
from grapes that grow on islands in
Put In bay, where Commodore Perry
taught John Bull a lesson some
years ago. And when the tun was
full. when $4,000 gallons Of wine had
been poured into the vast interior,
there was much rejoicing in the i'm
mediate vicinity, and all who wit
messed the completion of the process
felt in duty bound to drink to the
health of the Toledo tun, and to do
so in such unstinted measure that
the occasion is likely never to be for
gotten by those who participated.
How much the tun weighs am
unable to tell, but its contents
weigh 125 tons Of 2240 pounds
each allowing eight pounds to the
gallon. AS the Times will undoubt-
eddy extend the reputation of the
Toledo tun it might be proper to
state that its only rival, the Heidel-
berg tun, is no longer in condition
to hold $4,000 gallons or one gallon.
Age has increased its value as a Gu
riosity, but has impaired usefulness
that was only for short time tested
to its full extent. 1t has contained
no wine for a long time, and was
drank for the last time when EN-
peror William of Germany was
crowned. On that occasion a cask
of wine was placed in the ancient
tun in such a position that its con-
tents could be drawn through the
spigot Of the monstrous cask. So,
as it stands today, the Toledo tun is,
from a commercial standpoint, the
largest tun in the world, and in sup
port of this statement Toledo is will
ing to bank its last dollar.
A Good Bishop.